Trump to give top science medals to Musk, Huang, Su and Brin
President Trump is set to award the National Medal of Science to Elon Musk, Sergey Brin, Jensen Huang and Lisa Su on Thursday, and the National Medal of Technology and Innovation to Michael Dell and Satya Nadella. It will be the first time he has presented either honor.
AI-assisted · US Brief desk · Sources listed below
What happened
President Donald Trump is set to hand out the nation's top honors for science and technology on Thursday at a White House event called the Science: A New Golden Age Summit. Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and AMD CEO Lisa Su will receive the National Medal of Science. Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella will receive the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.
"These recipients are helping ensure America keeps leading the world in innovation," White House spokesperson Liz Huston said in a statement.
It will be the first time Trump has presented either medal in his two terms, Fox News reported. The summit is meant to discuss how superintelligence and private investment can speed up scientific discovery. Trump has a family tie to the award: his uncle, John G. Trump, was awarded the National Medal of Science by President Ronald Reagan for work on radiation, Fox said.
What’s next
What the White House says each recipient is being honored for, and whether other scientists are recognized at the summit.
More context
How outlets framed it: Fox News, which first reported the awards, called it a "prestigious first" of the presidency and focused on Musk's return to Trump's circle after their 2025 feud. Musk now co-leads Project Meridian, a Pentagon study of future warfare, Fox said.
CNBC led with money. It reported that every recipient has given, in some way, to Trump or Republican causes. Musk was Trump's biggest backer in the 2024 cycle at more than $290 million. Brin gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Republican National Committee in 2025. Nvidia gave $1 million to the inauguration, and Huang donated to the White House ballroom fund. Dell and his wife pledged $6.25 billion to seed Trump Accounts for children. CNBC added that Trump's latest disclosure showed trades in shares of several of the recipients' companies as recently as July.
Context: The ceremony comes about a week after a Sept. 29 White House lunch on artificial intelligence with many of the same executives. Afterward, Trump said he had signed a "morally binding" document with the tech leaders, CNBC reported.
3 listed sources
- Fox News, Oct 7, 2026: Elon Musk heads back to White House as Trump marks prestigious first of presidency
- CNBC, Oct 7, 2026: Trump awarding medals to Musk, Dell, Nadella and other tech execs at science summit
- Sourcing note: Fox News (first report, focused on the honor and Musk's return) and CNBC (focused on recipients' political giving and Trump's stock trades). The White House statement appears in both.
References listed by US Brief; a source count is not a verification score.
Editorial sourcing notes
The ceremony had not taken place when this was published; details come from the White House statement and reports from Fox News, which broke the news, and CNBC. Donation figures are as reported by CNBC. The hero photo shows Lisa Su at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in 2019, not at the White House event.
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